Egypt: Fatah-Hamas Split Preventing Statehood

Abbas visited Cairo and told his hosts he sees 'utmost importance' in unity with Hamas.

By Dalit Halevy

First Publish: 12/23/2013, 10:57 AM

Hamas Fatah reconciliation (file)

Flash 90

A senior Egyptian source told Egyptian newspaper Al-Hayyat Monday that Egypt “supports the Palestinian president” Mahmoud Abbas, “seeing as he heads the source of Palestinian legitimacy, and it stands at his right in the diplomatic struggle.”

The statement follows Abbas's visit to Cairo, which was devoted, among other thngs, to the difficulties in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The Egyptian source added that the negotiations between Israel and the PA must lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along the pre-1967 border, with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

Regarding the internal schism between the PA and the Hamas government of Gaza, the Egyptian stated that Abbas told his hosts that he sees reconciliation with Hamas as being of the “utmost importance.”

Egypt is interested in implementing reconciliation and unity in the Palestinian camp, the source explained, and will continue to make efforts in this direction, because it believes the current split is causing great damage to the Palestinian cause, and that “the Palestinian state cannot be achieved as long as the Palestinians are divided.”